Keith Testa's Boston Red Sox fan blog

As much as the 2004 Boston Red Sox season will forever stand out in my mind, the 2005 campaign lingers, as well. And for an entirely different reason.

The Red Sox were clearly dealing with a season-long World Series hangover in 2005, and I was therefore afflicted by the same disease. It was difficult not to be. Most of the games were lifeless, and the fans at Fenway seemed to be drunk enough on one World Series that it didn't matter that the team was supposed to be competing for another. As a fan, this was particularly disturbing - coming off the most intense six months of fandom in my lifetime, when every day literally revolved around the Red Sox and my mood changed sometimes with each pitch, I expected to be twice as ravenous. But I couldn't find the hunger. It was nothing tangible; the season just

Continue reading "Back for more"

I don't know if it's just me, but the playoffs never seem to officially start until the Sox play a game at Friendly Fenway. I mean, I watched the games in LA - or LA of Anaheim, or Anaheim in LA, or Anaheim in LA of California, United States - and came away psyched that the Sox were up 2-0, but it didn't have that playoff feel. It just felt like a road trip to the west coast. Maybe it was the fact that the glamorous LA fans were eating sushi off of asian-influenced rectangle plates instead of toting a steamed dog in one hand and a $7 Coors Light in the other. I don't know.

But the last two games in Boston were playoff baseball, 100 percent, pure and simple. Long, dramatic contests. Raw October nights, pink noses, rabid fans standing for every big pitch. My wife pinpointed it first - the chill in the air is the icing on the playoff baseball cake. You can look at the faces - of the players and the fans - and know immediately that it's time for October baseball in Boston.

Continue reading "Feeling Fenway"

Some playoff thoughts to chew on as we wait for the playoffs to start late enough on Wednesday that it's almost Thursday ...

I am hoping I can keep my eyelids open to the final pitch, but given the way playoff baseball goes - you know, with the commercials and the pitching changes and the commercials and the mound meetings and the commercials and the stategy and the commercials - I'm not so confident I'll make it through. Besides, I'm reminded of the last time I stuck out a 10 p.m. start to the finish. It was the first game of the ALDS in Oakland in 2003, and I fought sleepiness and ruined any chance of being productive the following day only to see Derek Lowe give up a walk-off bunt single in extras. I'm not sure I can take that again.

In truth, though, those of us on the East Coast shouldn't complain (that doesn't mean we won't). I mean think about it - those on the left coast get screwed almost every day when it comes to sports television. All the important games start when the average person is still at work, and football starts before you finish your first bowl of Cheerios on Sunday. Football at 10 a.m.? No thanks. So if we have to watch one late baseball game, so be it. After all, the Angels have homefield advantage for a reason - they earned it. It's not their fault that the home field of which we speak is in Los Angeles of Anaheim.

Continue reading "After my bedtime"

Wouldn't you know it, in the midst of my involuntary sarcastic wise cracks about Jason Giambi's facial hair and all things Yankee on Sunday night, I actually got a little emotional about the closing of Yankee Stadium.

Not tears-in-my-eyes emotional, necessarily, but certainly a little melancholy. Perhaps I've softened with the playing field between the Sox and Yankees a little more level and with a few more years of life under my belt, but instead of screaming obscenities about A-Rod I found myself coming back to the same question in my head:

What if it was Fenway?

The fact of the matter is, there's history in those halls. Whether it's history I care to relive or not, it's still there. It means a lot to a lot of people, and that was obvious and tangible Sunday night. I even found myself admitting that I don't hate Derek Jeter - it would be so much easier if I did - and allowing myself to agree that he's a fairly classy individual. (Don't worry, I still think he has a smug Yankee face and root against him any chance I get - I just don't think I can hate him).

Continue reading "Before they blow it up ..."

Can I stop listening to Curt Schilling now? Please?

Is it alright with Red Sox Nation if we all stop listening to Big Schill? Does anything he says really matter anymore? I mean, the guy has sounded off on Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant, steroids, Roger Clemens ... and during that time he's thrown exactly zero pitches. So why are we paying attention?

This week, in typical Schilling fashion, he went on WEEI and hammered Manny, saying his antics "disrespected" his teammates. Interesting point. Here's why I don't care.

For one, I haven't thought about Manny in weeks, and have been a happier person for it. Secondly, this is hardly an enlightening point. You mean people were growing tired of the Manny show? Your kidding. Did that have anything to do with all the veterans marching into Tito's office to demand the Sox get rid of him?

Continue reading "Is there a public appearance DL?"

Lost in the shuffle of Matt Cassel beating Brett Favre in the most hyped Week 2 game in years around these parts on Sunday afternoon, Jon Lester continued his march toward becoming a truly elite pitcher by outdueling a man largely respected as perhaps the best hurler in the AL, in a game the Sox needed to have. Any question marks that surrounded Lester at the All-Star break have been officially converted into exclamation points. In fact, pencil him in for Game 2 right now - it doesn't matter who we are playing or what Daisuke's record ends up being ... Lester's earned the spot right behind Beckett in the playoff rotation.

And, in so doing, answered what could have been one of the bigger questions heading toward the beloved month of October. That's one down ...

But there's plenty more to learn on the remaining journey into and hopefully through the postseason. With that in mind, the following is a list of major questions that remain, with my best guess at how they might be answered.

Continue reading "Q & A ... well, at least some Qs"

Memo to all ESPN studio analysts:

Please keep disrespecting the Patriots. This morning, as per usual, everyone but Keyshawn Johnson trashed the Pats and predicted an easy Jets victory. Leads one to wonder what it takes exactly to become an ESPN "expert" anyway. Any panel on which Keyshawn Johnson is the voice of reason needs some signficant retooling.

This is a fascinating phenomenon - that certain ESPN personalities, Tom Jackson in particular, make no secret about their hatred for the Patriots and find any reason to announce their demise publicly. So much for objectivity. Jackson is nothing more than a bitter ex-player who never tasted a title and has to find reasons to discount the dynasty the Patriots built.

It goes deep with him. It was he who announced that the players in the Pats lockeroom "hated" Belichick when he axed Lawyer Milloy early in the 2003-04 season. (Point of order: The unified Patriots hoisted the Lombardi trophy later that winter). It is he who is always "yeah buts" to any statement or commentary about the Patriots dynasty and Belichick's resume. And it was he who was loudest in his vocal opposition to the Patriots spygate scenario last season, routinely trashing them on the morning pregame show.

Continue reading "Dear Mr. Jackson"

It seems I can't post a comment in response to John Keller's diatribe (entitled Boston Red Sox: Masters of the Mediocre) because I'm not a member of the New York Yankees site, and I refuse to defile myself in such a way as to sign up for it. So here is my simple response to his over-caffeinated, ill-timed (given the Yankees utter futility this season) and strangely aggressive post.

Anyway, as I was saying ...

Guys you've heard of (IE legit Major Leaguers) produced and not "purchased" by the Red Sox - Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jonathan Papelbon, Manny Delcarmen, Jon Lester (and you could throw in Jed Lowrie and Justin Masterson) - a list, by the way, that includes two MVP candidates (Youk and Pedroia), the best closer in baseball (sorry Mariano "Skeleton Face" Rivera) and a potential future Cy Young winner (Lester).

Continue reading "The Tables Have Turned"

Like a scene from the beloved long-running television drama, I feel like I'm looking through a one-way window at the Boston Red Sox. Indeed, I fear the word "lineup" has taken on a conotation with a decidedly more law enforcement feel at this point. "Mr Francona, take a look at these men and tell me if you recognize anyone."

Exhibit A: The Red Sox lineup, circa April 2008
CF - Jacoby Ellsbury
2B - Dustin Pedroia
DH - David Ortiz
LF - Manny Ramirez
3B - Mike Lowell
RF - JD Drew
1B - Kevin Youkilis
C - Jason Varitek
SS - Julio Lugo

Exhibit B: The Red Sox lineup, Friday night
CF - Jacoby Ellsbury
3B - Jed Lowrie
DH - David Ortiz
2B - Dustin Pedroia
RF - Mark Kotsay

Continue reading "Law and Order"

If you told me the following facts before the season began - that Jon Lester would be the Red Sox' best pitcher, that the starting staff would receive critical contributions from Bartolo Colon and Paul Byrd (potentially two of the ugliest pitchers ever to don a Sox uniform, as an aside), that Jed Lowrie would have more RBI than Julio Lugo, that Manny would take his Manny show to the left coast, that Jason Varitek would be struggling to hit .220, that Kevin Youkilis would be the team's most feared power hitter, and that David Ortiz would miss the bulk of the first half with an injury - I'd probably have predicted that the Sox would finish fourth in the American League East.

Right in front of Tampa Bay.

And yet here we are with September on the horizon, with the Rays comfortably in first place and the Red Sox - despite all of the above - still in the hunt for the division and in the lead for the Wild Card.

Continue reading "Not Exactly How They Drew It Up - But They'll Take It"